It’s 1945; the lights are low, the record player is stacked with the latest hit tunes. One by one, the tone arm pulls out of the way, the platters drop and the music continues. The next piece is what?

We just missed it, but Slim Gaillard, the hepcat who wrote such now-forgotten songs as “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)” and “Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy),” was born 100 years ago yesterday. A ...